On vaccines the case for collective action is nonexistent. Neofascist states abroad developed vaccines that don't work. America developed good vaccines by cutting government red tape that left *privately*-developed mRNA vaccines languishing in regulatory approval hell for years.
None of the COVID-19 vaccines is formally "approved" by the FDA, by the way. But for political pressure over ending COVID-19 the FDA likely wouldn't approve these medicines, either. At the beginning of 2020 Moderna hadn't even been approved to conduct trials.
Every country on Earth, strong central government or not, failed the COVID test. Those that failed it less poorly were island states which only controlled the thing by sealing their borders.
Moderna's vaccine, e.g., in its *current* form was developed within two days of the company getting the virus' genetic sequence in January 2020. The reason we didn't have the vaccine already when this pandemic started, at least in part, is because of regulation.
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When the business plot was hatched, television was 15 years away from being mass market. QAnon was hatched on 8Chan when every one of the plotters was long dead.
Anyone who thinks there is a connection between those two things is insane or just making stuff up for engagement.
Oh and expect a lot more of "this is Bitcoin's fault"
The GameStop Event is actually a great example of Section 230 at work. If Reddit were headquartered in England, it would have almost certainly been hit with an injunction and been forced to cut off the WSB subreddit. This is why Reddit isn't based in England.
I was chatting with @IvyAstrix and a few others about what the GameStop event likely means in the context of social media and the law last night on Clubhouse. The Gamestop mob is the latest incarnation of memes crossing into the real world with real world consequences.
The prototypical versions of this were the Habbo Hotel griefers back in 2007-08. We will also recall that those griefers - or at least their fellow travelers - experimented with real world organizing in a series of protests, around the world, against the Church of Scientology.
Tl;dr exchanges will need to file a CTR when they send funds to a crypto address. No impact on users, no impact on B2C or B2B, but likely increased surveillance of the Bitcoin network by the govt.
Good scoop by the Block to actually get details on the proposal.
Everyone’s said for months that this is a rule about self-hosted wallets. If the story is true, it really isn’t. It’s a rule about reporting by MSBs. If you don’t interact with an MSB your transactions won’t be reportable under the rule, reportedly.
I’ve just had the misfortune of reading the Law Commission’s proposals to reform communications laws in the United Kingdom. My conclusion is that the Law Commission should be abolished.
The draft text of the law they proposed is here.
Tl;dr if you say something in public, and it causes “emotional distress” to the reader, the Law Commission proposes that this should be a crime.
I'd remind the Law Commission of the playground wisdom that “sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”
This legal development requires a new saying: “words will never hurt me, but a policeman enforcing an unjust thoughtcrime can.”
Sure thing Ron. Section 230 says tech cos aren’t liable for stuff users post.
Repeal it and $800 billion companies like Facebook will still be able to defend themselves. Small companies don’t have that kind of firepower and need 230 to fend off activists and foreign states.
Doing this would allow the Big Tech firms and their massive legal budgets to pull up the ladder behind them, while everyone smaller than they are gets mired in litigation - and fails to grow.